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Are you growing rye or winter wheat for grain or seed this year? What’s the plan after your harvest? If you’re looking to add nitrogen for a 2019 corn crop, now might be the time to think about frost seeding red clover into that rye or wheat in late February. Red clover as a green […]

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Practical Farmers of Iowa’s Cooperators’ Program—our vehicle for conducting on-farm research trials. As such, throughout this year we’ll periodically be taking a look back at work done by farmer-cooperators over the past 30 years in a series of blog posts entitled “Better Know an On-Farm Research Project.” In […]

Various green manure cover crop mixes can successfully be established following the harvest of a small grain crop in mid-summer. • Following cereal rye seed harvest in July 2015, farmer-cooperator Tim Sieren seeded a brassica mix into one field and a legume mix into another field. He then compared 2016 corn yields resulting from a Low and High N fertilizer rate that followed the green manure mixes in the separate fields. Key Findings • Regardless of the green manure mix it followed, corn yields were significantly greater with the 145 lb N/ac (High) rate compared to the 95 lb N/ac (Low) rate. • Wet summer months likely contributed to the superiority of the High N rate in terms of both yield and financial returns in 2016.

On January 21-22, around 85 farmers from across the state gathered in Ames to learn about small grains crops (oats, wheat & barley) from industry professionals, researchers and fellow farmers at the “Growing Good Small Grains” course prior to Practical Farmers of Iowa’s annual conference. Most Iowa farmers spend plenty of time thinking about plant populations, plant protection products and fertilizer requirements […]

Since 1987, the Cooperators’ Program has been Practical Farmers of Iowa’s vehicle for conducting on-farm research on the issues and concerns deemed most important by our members. The Cooperators’ Program is the epitome of what PFI is all about: Farmer-led investigation and information sharing. In 2015, 63 farmers took part in 35 research projects on […]

Cultivation of cereal rye for cover crop seed offers the possibility of frost-seeding a legume into the standing rye crop in early spring, where the legume can produce biomass and fix N following rye harvest. In 2014, farmer-cooperators Tim Sieren and Dick Sloan grew corn in rotation following cereal rye frost-seeded with red clover and […]

Extending and diversifying a crop rotation to include a small grain presents farmers with the opportunity to generate biological soil nitrogen using forage legume(green manure) cover crops seeded in the spring and summer. Farmer-cooperator, Dick Sloan grew corn following red clover that was frost-seeded into a cereal rye seed crop and also after a mix […]

The Economics of Cover CropsJuly 28, 2015 View Farminar Pre-recorded NWF awarded grants to researchers from Iowa State University and Western Illinois University to assess and interpret the economic impacts of using cover crops such as reduced input costs at the farmer level to job creation at the economy-wide level. This webinar includes research results [...]

Specialty corn varieties are bred to express quality profiles that are more suitable for livestock feed than standard, conventional corn varieties. With that in mind, John Gilbert, of Gibralter Farms near Iowa Falls, investigated different fertilizer practices to improve productivity of a specialty corn variety (cv. GEI 101) he has deemed to possess a desirable quality profile […]